Aliens: This project was an experimental collaboration with a friend that never quite made it past the initial planning stages. We wanted a story about aliens. Pegging the look of the character proved surprisingly problematic. My original sketches (top) boomed into several sketchbook pages of illustrative brainstorming (bottom).
New York City, 2005
The Twins. This was an experiment, done before there were avatar sites for this kind of thing. The twins have exactly the same body, skin color and face — the general coloring and style of hair is different, and the clothes clearly aren’t the same. I was curious to see how drastically shifting these elements would change the look of a basic character (quite a lot).
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Snakeybait
Birthday: Long forgotten
Likes: Brains (especially human brains), flesh (especially rodent flesh)
Dislikes: Gristle, fingernails and other such impediments
Super Powers: Supernaturally venomous
Personality: He’s a small zombie snake who lures his victims in with cuteness… be careful
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Captain Bug
Likes: Reflective surfaces, gadgets, superhero-style accessories (like wristbands)
Dislikes: Citronella (it’s his kryptonite)
Personality: Born with a healthy ego and overactive imagination, Captain Bug (self-dubbed) is delusionally convinced he is hte most super insect around.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Weirdo
Hometown: Somewhere on an unknown planet
Likes: Django Reinhardt
Dislikes: Liquids of any kind
Super Powers: Can release different types of gasses: poisonous, narcotic, fruit-flavored, etc.
Personality: Underneath his happy shell, the blue weirdo is actually shy and relatively introspective
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Toadberry
Series: Amphibifruit
Likes: Lettuce leaves and lily pads
Dislikes: Vinaigrettes, mold
Personality: Toadberry likes to be held, but be warned — he’ll make your hands sticky.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Tomatomander
Series: Amphibifruit
Likes: Leafy greens
Dislikes: Salt
Personality: The Tomatomander is a sly yet sluggish creature who likes houseplants and low stone walls. Is he a reptile? Is he an amphibian? Is he a vegetable? Is he a fruit? He’s hard to peg.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Pearfrog
Series: Amphibifruit
Likes: Fruitflies
Dislikes: Plastic wrap
Personality: Born with a mild flavor and equally mild personality, the Pearfrog is usually found playing happily in the lower branches of pond-side trees, occasionally plopping down into the water for an aquatic frolic.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Finston
Hometown: Upper West Great Barrier Reef
Likes: solitude, seaweed
Dislikes: confrontation, sudden movements
Personality: Fraidy shark. Always freaking out. Wants to be a hard ass but can never pull it off.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Clammy
Birthday: Survived a mass hatch on June 4th
Hometown: Reef Bank #14
Likes: Explosions — he’s never seen one, since they don’t often happen underwater, but he’s heard about them…
Dislikes: Starfish (little punk asses), seaweed casserole, flaky mermaids who do nothing but comb their hair and yap…
Super Powers: None known — he dreams about being able to breathe fresh oxygen and flying through the air over the ocean
Personality: Amiable aquatic adolescent. Prone to pouting, but generally cool. Often gets in trouble when his natural curiosity takes him places he shouldn’t be.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Scabbit
Series: Manhattanimals
Birthday: Not even his mother remembers
Hometown: New York, NY (Ft. Tryon Park, represent)
Likes: Slightly rotten produce, the smell of a rain-soaked urban wasteland, sharpening his claws on the sides of moving subway trains, and old black and white films (though he’d never admit the last one)
Dislikes: You
Super Powers: The telepathic ability to make people itch
Personality: Total bastard. Will scratch, claw, kick and spit at random. Was born with a genetic defect that makes his tongue to long for his mouth, therefore it always hangs out. Not even children are fooled into thinking this is your ordinary fluffy bunny — he gives off a vibe that can only be described as ornery. Born under a downtown pier, he fled uptown after a particularly brutal rabbit adolescence and has taken refuge in a northern Manhattan park that has lots of dark underpasses and rank hedgerows. Claim to fame: lashing out at Bette Midler with his claws when she and her cleanup crew tried to recycle his favorite can.
2006
Playing with character ideas and computer illustration:
Originally made for Moji, where is his profile revealed the following:
Name: Orson Snout III
Series: Manhattanimals
Hometown: A tiny ancestral farm on a Manhattan rooftop
Likes: Hot dogs (cannibalistic thrill), rain, the complexity of subway dirt
Dislikes: Rats, urbanistas on the hunt for trendy pets
Super Powers: Invisibility (when covered in mud)
Personality: Surprisingly sweet and lovable for a New York pig. Just wants to hang out and see what’s going on.
2006
This site is a small showcase of my sketches. If you need something drawn, feel free to contact me at nealteak [at] gmail [dot] com
I am a graphic and web designer, writer and editor who does illustration casually on the side under the pseudonym Neal Teak. This site is not linked to my professional site because it's just for fun. I sketch, it keeps my creative mind alive, and part of me will always regret not following my high school dream of becoming an animator. I have fun with my sketchbook, and, if you're bothering to glance through these images, I hope you do too. Cheers.
GALLERIES:
Around Town
Subway Sketches
Character Ideas
Miscellaneous
